Desrosiers’ Second Chance

Expectations were high for Carson Desrosiers when he stepped on campus at Wake Forest.  As part of what was to be a terrific five man recruiting class for Dino Gaudio, it looked like Wake’s 2010 haul could push the Deacons back to the top of the ACC.  It was a recruiting haul that featured four top 100 players, yet, before the class enrolled Gaudio was let go and replaced by Jeff Bzedelik.  Two long years in the ACC’s basement followed.

The seven foot Desrosiers was among the most highly-touted in the class, listed as high as #41 nationally by Scout.com and landing in the 60s and 80s by ESPN and Rivals.com.  The two-time Massachusetts player of the year had the offensive skill to step out and make three pointers off of a bounce or two and the shot blocking potential that is so difficult to find on the recruiting trail.

Despite starting 38 games in his two seasons at Wake Forest Desrosiers decided to transfer this spring, winding up a school that made him a priority under the previous coaching staff.

On media day Desrosiers sounded as though he felt he landed in the right place after committing to Ed Cooley in May.  He noted once again how he loved Providence throughout his high school recruiting process, but felt as though something had been missing the first time around.

He’s found what was missing in Cooley and the coach’s on-court philosophy, “A skilled player like myself, I’m told I’ll thrive in Coach Cooley’s system because he likes to have skilled 4s and 5s.  I haven’t yet, but I might request to see things from his time at Fairfield because I know they had some good 4s and 5s in the past, so maybe I can see how they’ve been utilized and prepare myself for that.”

At Wake, Desrosiers wasn’t featured as part of the offense, in particular his usage from beyond the three point arc, where he proved to be a capable shooter from on both the high school and AAU circuit during his original recruitment.

Those shot attempts became more frequent towards the end of last season, but instead of looking at a system that didn’t feature him often enough, he looked inward, “A lot of it just fell on me and being more aggressive.  Towards the end of the year I started being more aggressive and put it on myself to seek out more shots, and that’s what I started doing.  I started scoring at a clip that I hadn’t been throughout the year.”

The newfound aggression, combined with a new strength and condition approach may result in a new player when he is eligible to play for the Friars in the 2013-14 season.  Like anyone in his situation, he’d prefer to take to the court this season, but Desrosiers shared that if you treat the year away as a negative that’s just what it will be.  He’s determined to remain positive and make the most of what a year of working on his game could mean to his development.

He’s already seeing early results, “I’ve been working on just getting stronger.  Just from being here for two months working with (strength and conditioning) Coach White – it’s a different type of strength program than I had previously.  I’m already seeing that work transfer onto the court.  I’m going to continue to work harder on my body and work on individual aspects of my game.”

What has Desrosiers seen from his new teammates since coming aboard this summer? “We’ve grown a lot as a unit over the past two months. We just got done with a program where two Army guys came and kicked our butts for two days and even from those two days we realized that it brought us closer together.  When things went bad in those two days we rallied around each other and got the results we wanted, and that can only be looked upon as a positive.

Friday afternoon we went for about three or four hours on the turf.  We did a lot of pushups and sit-ups.  We were in the pool at 5am the next morning doing some ‘there and backs’, and some more sit-ups and pushups.  It was a good experience.”

Experience is something Desrosiers will bring to the front court next season, and those around Providence are hopeful that in his experience as a Friar Desrosiers will blossom into the type of player many had projected in the spring of 2010.

Email Kevin at kevin.farrahar@friarbasketball.com

35 Comments

1. 

   Friars93

   October 16, 2012 at 2:57 am

   Great articles Kevin. Keep’em comin’!
2. 

   Kevin Farrahar

   October 16, 2012 at 10:48 am

   I appreciate it. Thanks.

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